Dispensing container



March 17, 1959 B. M. KING, JR

DISPENSING CONTAINER my. 2 I v ja-jK Filed July 15, l954 6 W m H W mm 7. O F U B Y A TTORNE Y United States Patent Ofiic DISPENSING CONTAINER Buford M. King, In, Chicago, Ill., assignor to The Upjohn Company, Kalamazoo, Mich., a corporation of Michigan Application July 15, 1954, Serial No. 443,659 4 Claims. (Cl. 221-246) This invention relates to dispensing containers and more particularly to portable containers designed to dispense one or more articles, such as pills or tablets, from a larger supply of the same.

Dispensing containers of the type which expose and re lease a predetermined number of articles, such as tablets or pills, from a box while retaining the remaining tablets in the box have been previously constructed. See U. S. Patents 1,962,860 and 2,359,832. In the prior art devices a shallow box is provided with a slide cover having a depending flange which in movement of the cover to open position forces all of the articles back into the storage portion except those Which are to be dispensed and in the open position of the cover acts to block movement of articles from the storage part of the box into the dispensing portion. Devices of this kind, however, suifer the disadvantage that the depending flange engages the articles to be pushed back into the storage part of the box in a dead center position which tends to cause jamming together in the box. This disadvantage in the prior dispensing containers is more fully set out in U. S. Patent 2,359,832 where means carried by the box is provided to break up any such jam when the cover is moved to open position.

It is an object of the invention to provide a new and improved dispensing container. It is a further object of the invention to avoid the disadvantages of the prior art. It is a further object of the invention to provide a dispensing container involving a new principle to prevent jamming of articles therein. It is a further object of the invention to provide a molded plastic dispensing container of simplified design and construction. It is a further object of the invention to provide a molded plastic dispensing' container which can be readily fabricated by injection molding. It is a further object of the invention to provide a molded plastic dispensing container which can be easily assembled.

The above and other objects of the present invention will appear more fully from the following more detailed description and by reference to the accompanying drawing forming a part hereof wherein:

Figure 1 is a bottom plan view with the cover in closed position;

Figure 2 is a bottom position;

Figure 3 is a side elevation with the cover in closed position;

Figure position;

Figure 5 is a top position; and

Figure 6 is an exploded front end view.

Referring to the drawings, there is shown a molded plastic dispensing container comprising a shallow box 10 provided with a sliding cover 12. The shallow box 10 is divided into a dispensing compartment 14 and a storage compartment 16 by means of a partition 18 extending part way across sufficiently to allow for one and only one of the articles contained in the storage compartment 16 to pass into the dispensing compartment 14. The dispensingcompartment 14 is less wide than the storage compartment 16 and is connected thereto by sloping sides 20 plan view with the cover in open 4 is a side elevation with the cover in open plan view with the cover in open and 22 forming a throat or passageway between the storage compartment and the dispensing compartment.

The sliding cover 12 is provided with a depending blocking pin 24 which in the opening of the container moves to the position shown in Figure 2 where it blocks the passageway between the storage compartment and the dispensing compartment.

The shallow box 10 is provided with parallel guide rails 26 and 28 as more fully shown in Figure 6. These guide rails are in the plane of the top of the box and form a plane surface for a main body portion or plate 30 of the cover to slide on. The portions of the rails 26 and 28 opposite the dispensing compartment 14 have widened portions 32 and 34 as bestshown in Figures 2 and 5. Each of the wide portions 32 and 34 is provided with an elongated slot 36 and 38 each parallel to the outer edges of the rails 26 and 28. The cover 12 is provided with two bosses 40 and 42 which register with elongated slots 36 and 38 as shown more particularly in Figures 1 and 2 and act as a stop to prevent the cover from going past the closed position as shown in Figure l, or past the open position shown in Figure 2. The bosses 40 and 42 have their inner edges beveled as more particularly shown in Figures 3 and 4 at 44 so that in sliding the cover onto the box the bosses slide up over the front edge 46 and snap into the elongated slot 36 and 38.

Advantageously the front wall 46 of the box 10 may be provided with a slot 48 in register with the pin 24 so that the cover can he slid onto the box, the blocking pin passing through slot 48 in the front wall 46.

The cover 12 is provided with depending flanges 54 and 56 adapted lightly to engage over the side edges of the rails 26 and 28 which are beveled as more clearly shown in Figure 6 at 58 and 60. The flanges 54 and 56 are provided with inwardly projecting bosses 62 and 64 having complementary beveled edges 66 and 68 adapted to engage the beveled edges 58'and 60 of the rails 26 and 28. Three pairs of such bosses are shown but more or less can be used. The bosses 62 and 64 complementing the beveled edges 58 and 60 of the rails 26 and 28 constitute means for slidably holding the cover on the box.

Along and adjacent the flanges 54 and 56 the cover is provided with a plurality of elongated openings 70'and 72 in registry with the bosses 62 and 64. These elongated openings 70 and 72 increase the ability of the flanges 54 and 56 to flex and thus to minimize the consequence of too little clearance as a result from warpage and shrinking of the molded parts. They also facilitate snapping the closure on the box where it is desired not to provide the slot 48.

A rounded boss 74 is provided on the cover in position to snap over the rear wall 52 of the box when moved between the positions shown in Figures 1 and 2. In the position shown in Figure l, the boss '74 operates to hold the cover in closed position.

In the operation of the dispensing container as described above, an article may be shaken into the dispensing container as shown in Figure 1. When the cover is then moved into the position shown in Figure 2, the blocking pin 24 moves into the passageway or throat between the two compartments, displaces any article 76 which may be located in the passageway, and blocks entry of further articles into the dispensing compartment as more particularly shown in Figure 2. To obtain this effect, the blocking pin 24 is made with a very small transverse dimension. Thus the width of the pin 24 is advantageously made less than one radius of the articles to be dispensed. This, coupled with the fact that the of the dispensing compartment a distance, including the Patented Mar. 17, 1959" width of the blocking pin 24, less than one radius of an article to be dispensed, the point of contact with any article resting in the passageway or throat of the con tainer, as shown in Figure 1 by the dotted lines representing the loci of movement of the blocking pin 24, is always olf center of the article no matter where it is in the passageway. Hence when the cover is moved to a position shown in Figure 2 the pin engages the article 76 in an ofi center position and gives it both a lateral and a longitudinal thrust, thus displacing it from any jamming alignment with other articles in the storage cornpartment. At the same time the pin must be spaced from the other side of the passageway, as illustrated from the partition 18, a distance less than a diameter of an article to be dispensed. Suitably it may be between one radius and one diameter distance from the other side of the passage. Thus in the closed position shown in Figure 1 the passage is unobstructed and is of sufricient width to pass one pill and in the open position with the blocking pin 24 in the position shown, the passage is so restricted that no article can pass into the dispensing container. Thus when an article is shaken into the dispensing compartment and the cover is opened, one and only one article will drop from the dispensing compartment when the container is inverted.

It will be understood, however, that the dispensing compartment can be made large enough to accommodate two or more articles should it be desired to dispense two or more articles at a time.

Having thus illustrated the invention with reference to a particular embodiment it is to be understood that the invention is not to be limited to the details of construction and operation as shown, and that variation may be made therein without departing from the spirit of the invention within the scope of the appended claims.

I claim:

1. A dispensing container comprising a shallow box adapted to contain a plurality of articles to be dispensed having circular cross section in the plane of said box, partition means dividing said box into a dispensing compartment and a storage compartment, said partition means projecting from one side toward the opposite side of said dispensing compartment sufficiently to form a restricted passageway adapted to pass articles from the storage compartment to the dispensing compartment one at a time only, a sliding cover for said dispensing compartment, and a blocking means carried by said cover arranged to block the passageway of said partition means when the cover is in open position, said blocking means having a width less than one radius of said article and being spaced from the said opposite side of said dispensing compartment a distance, including the width of said blocking means, less than one radius of said article and from the other side of the said passageway a distance, excluding the width of said blocking means, less than one diameter and greater than one radius of said article, whereby the blocking means in its movement to its blocking position will contact any article which is positioned in the passageway at a point off center thereof and displace the same both laterally and longitudinally into said storage compartment and in the blocking position will prevent passage of articles from compartment to compartment.

2. The dispensing container of claim 1 in which the dispensing compartment has a capacity of holding not more than one article.

3. A dispensing container adapted to dispense articles having a circular cross section comprising a shallow box divided into a dispensing compartment and a storage compartment and having converging side walls forming a throat between the two compartments, a stationary barrier means blocking part of said throat to the passage of articles from compartment to compartment, said stationary barrier means projecting from one side of said dispensing compartment toward the opposite side thereof the said opposite side to form a passageway adapted to pass articles from the storage compartment to the dispensing compartment one at a time only, a movable blocking means movable from a position allowing passage of an article through said passageway into said dispensing compartment to a position blocking said passageway, said movable blocking means in the blocking position being spaced from said opposite side of said dispensing compartment a distance, including the width of said blocking means, less than one radius of said article and from the said stationary barrier means a distance, excluding the width of said blocking means, less than one diameter, and greater than one radius of said article, whereby when an article is positioned in said passageway between said stationary barrier means and the said opposite side of said dispensing compartment and the movable blocking means is moved to blocking position, said movable blocking means will engage the article in an off-center position and tend to displace it laterally away from the said oposite side, and a cover means for said dispensing compartment which on opening and closing respectively causes movement of said movable blocking means to and from blocking position.

4. A dispensing container for dispensing fiat cylindrical tablets comprising a shallow box divided into a dispensing compartment of sufiicient size to hold one tablet only and a storage compartment of sufficient size to hold a plurality of tablets; converging side walls connecting said compartments and forming a throat between them; a slide cover which in closed position covers both compartments and in open position covers the storage compartment only; a stationary barrier means blocking part of said throat to the passage of articles from compartment to compartment, said stationary barrier means projecting normally from one side of said dispensing compartment and being spaced from the opposite side and the front side of said dispensing compartment by slightly greater than one tablet diameter whereby one tablet only can pass through the throat into the dispensing compartment; a movable block'ng means carried by said cover and located thereon so that in the closed position of the cover the movable blocking means is spaced from said stationary blocking means more than one tablet diameter and in the open position of the cover is spaced from said stationary barrier means less than one tablet diameter whereby when the cover is in the closed position a tablet is free to pass from the storage through the throat into the dispensing compartment and when the cover is in open position the throat is blocked; said movable blocking means having a width less than one tablet radius and being located adjacent the side of the dispensing compartment opposite said stationary barrier means and being spaced therefrom, including the width of said blocking means, less than one tablet radius whereby when a tablet in the dispensing compartment and another tablet is in the throat between said stationary barrier means and the opposite side of said dispensing compartment, opening of the cover will cause said movable blocking means to engage the tablet in the throat at a point oif center thereby to cause lateral displacement of said tablet as the cover is opened.

and being spaced fiom References Cited in the file of this patent UNITED STATES PATENTS 1). 137,512 Laure Mar. 21, 1944 2,101,687 Paul Dec. 7, 1937 2,133,651 Baker Oct. 18, 1938 2,359,832 Duell Oct. 10, 1944 2,378,004 Duell June 12, 1945 2,493,616 Burns Jan. 3, 1950 2,605,892 Waber et al Aug. 5, 1952 2,645,336 Waber et al July 14, 1953 FOREIGN PATENTS 488,806 Great Britain July 14, 1938 

